The Family Inside is perfect for The Housemaid fans, it's full of poor choices based on desperation, and revenge. Someone recommended this to me a few times and I'm glad they did. I had fun reading this twist-filled thriller. I literally was like :O towards the end of the book, which is mainly centered around Iris and her 18 y.o old daughter Ellory. Iris has enough problems and then unfortunately things get worse when her hot boyfriend Hugh's crazy family and horrible house enter the chat.
Thank you HTP Books/ MIRA/NetGalley for the digital and (green) physical copy.

THIS BOOK. This was my first book by Katie Garner and it did not disapoint! The continual twists in this story line kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, you are 100% wrong. I love a book that keeps me thinking the whole time. I did not want to put this book down! Strong character development and a plot that EATS.

I was hooked from the start! Once the twist came, I thought I had figured out how this would end, I was wrong. Great read, atmospheric and twisty. The family will keep you guessing what they're up too.

Unfortunately, this book was a definite "miss" for me. I was fairly invested during the first half, but the second half and ending were filled with so many eyeroll moments that I can't say which was the most outlandish.
Also, the writing here was very awkward, full of nonsensical phrases like, "He scraped his gaze over me," and "She pinched the door open."
This is not an author I will read again.

4.5* I'm exhausted with this psychological suspense!! What a book! What a family!! I didn't know you could drive so much home into a book, but this one... My thoughts on the eerie Ravencliff Gothic mansion began as my love for the enchanted Biltmore Castle, so I imagined every passageway, hidden door and mountain of steps as it, but it did not take long to see Ravencliff as the dilapidated and chilling place it was. This place has so many secrets, but it is the family inside that will have you running.
In Iris's POV, she shares her heartache and disappointments as she lost her husband in a horrible murder three years ago. With grief, debt, job loss and a moody teenage daughter Ellory, who also shares her POV, she has reason to come unraveled and that she does....
When Iris falls in love with Hugh, a prominent architect, and accepts his proposal to move into the mansion with him while he renovates it. She also must accept his mother Birdie, his brother and sister-in-law and his sister. This family chilled me when she walked into the door with her daughter in tow.
There are so many twists, dark secrets, confusion with two timelines that I could not keep up with all their dysfunctional and creepy behaviors. The Gothic mansion has a life of its own and adds to atmospheric and catastrophic events that don't and won't stop... a Brilliant author to line up so many well-thought out details...maybe some are OTT, but sift through it, allow it to soak in, then realize this is what psychological thrillers are made of. I don't think I can think of one thriller that has so many story-lines going you become entangled in the web with it. Wait..who am I for? Who is good? Who is the bad guy?
Then her daughter and sister-in-law go missing...
One thing is for sure I realize Iris had a lot thrown at her and not sure if I could handle any of it, but she needed to chill and think before she acted. At times she was out of control, and I wanted to shake her. No one is who you think they should be which makes for an interesting ending. It is addictive that you can't stop reading!
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA for this ARC in exchange for my review!

DNF @ 24%

There was something about the writing that felt stilted to me and that made it hard for me to get into the story. Right off the bat I didn't really like Iris as a character and I found a lot of her actions, either internal or outwardly, to be repetitive and sometimes nonsensical. There wasn't enough to draw in my attention and keep it.

Thanks Netgalley and MIRA for providing this ARC to me.

I would like to start off this review by thanking Harlequin Trade Publishing|MIRA and Katie Garner for allowing me to read this book, "The Family Inside," via Netgalley. All opinions following are my own.

This book had it all: mystery, thriller, twists, and romance. The story follows Iris, a single mother whose husband was murdered three years earlier and whose case remains unsolved. At the beginning of the novel, readers find that Iris has lost her job, her 18 year old daughter, Ellory, is struggling, and they are being evicted from their house in a mere three days. There is a bright spot for Iris, though. She has an amazing best friend named Sloane, a good friend named Ainsley, and a budding new romance with a rich, handsome man named Hugh. Upon realizing Iris and Ellory will be homeless, Hugh offers to move them into his mother's house that he fixing. With trepidation but also a bit of excitement, Iris agrees. However, things start going downhill fast from almost the moment they move in, and it won't stop until people go missing and others are murdered.

I gave this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It was very close to a five-star for me, but some of the twists could've been less farfetched, and I felt like there were a couple of loose ends left. All-in-all, I definitely recommend readers add this to their #2025tbr!

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This book was an absolute whirlwind and totally bingeable.

Iris is down on her luck, a widowed mom of an 18 year old, who just lost her job and also is being evicted from her house. So when her new wealthy boyfriend invites her to come live in his big family home where he moved back in to help out with repairs for his elderly mother, how could she say no?

I really enjoyed this story! It has a bit of a slower start - compared to the last 25% of the book that had my head spinning. A must read for thriller fans!

4⭐️

Thanks to MIRA books for my ARC! Pub date 01.28.25

As an avid thriller reader I almost feel like I've seen it all so it is always a nice suprise when a book leaves me guessing and this is exactly what this book accomplished. Our main character iris has just lost everything in her life and doesn't think it can get any worse, her husband was murdered, she is drowning in debt and now her and her daughter are about to be evicted from the only home they've ever known. Right when she is unsure about everything her boyfriend, Hugh suggests that she move in with him since he has all the extra space. Reluctant to take him up on the offer she finally accepts after realizing it is her only option. Hugh is a devoted and attentive partner who loves her and her daughter so it only makes sense that they take this step together what could possibly go wrong, right? However when Iris gets to the house she realises that unknown to her she will be living with his family as well and the house itself soon starts to show it's sinister nature. It soon becomes clear to Iris that there might have been a sinister motive to get her to this place and it is now up to her to make sure that both her daughter and herself make it out in one piece. This book gave off a major sence of foreboding right from the beginning as it almost felt like our characters were lambs being lead to the slaughter. I loved this book and could get enought of it. I loved all of the surprises, I loved constantly wondering what was lurking behind all of the next turns but over all I loved the fast pace of this book and the character themselves were very well written and three dimensional. I couldn't put this book down as every time I tried I was pulled back in desperate to figure out what was really going on with our main characters. With so many lies being thrown around it was so much fun getting to the final truth about everything. This is a book that you will easily find yourself lost in and everything seems to fade away the deeper you get into this plot. The ending really threw me in a tail spin as I was left shocked but amazed at the same time. I love twists and I never saw that one coming. Great read I couldn't get enough and I can't wait until everyone else gets to check this one out. This was the first book of ever read by this author however after the whirlwind like this one this definitely will not be the last. I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with and I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to check this one out.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The life of Iris Bloggett pretty much gets flushed down the toilet after her husband is murdered. She loses her job, and she is evicted from her home. When her handsome new boyfriend offers to let her move into his family home, she did not understand that his entire family would be living there with them as well and that they were a clan of weirdos. The longer Iris stays, the more she discovers that there are dark family secrets and sinister purposes at play.

This book has everything you could want from a suspenseful psychological thriller: unreliable characters, dysfunctional family, lies, secrets, murders and a TWISTY plot! This well written book is fast paced and kept my head spinning as to what was happening and where it would lead next! Highly recommend!!!

Lies, lies, lies

Family secrets that tie each other together.

I was hooked from the beginning. Did not expect or anticipate that twist or how it just spiralled after the revelation.

Just love a book with a good twist or two. Nobody is how they appear. The ending left a nice little surprise though. Definitely a book I’ll be thinking about for the next while.

Highly recommend this thriller and look forward to checking out additional books by this author.

Thank you NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

The beginning drew me in but once we got into the house, it lost me a little. The family was definitely hiding something and there were all kinds of questionable characters but it just felt a little flat to me. I think I just wasn’t the right reader for this particular style, thank you to HTP for the ARC!

This book was much better than I expected and I finished it in less than 48 hours. There is enough misdirection that you don't see most of the twists coming especially the biggest twists of all. I would definitely look for more books from this author in the future.

Katie Garner's 2025 thriller, THE FAMILY INSIDE, immediately caught my attention because of the synopsis and the intriguing cover. I knew that this book was one I needed to prioritize because it sounded so juicy and similar to Lisa Jewell's A Family Upstairs (my favorite of her novels). Three years after her husband’s unsolved murder, Iris Blodgett is drowning in grief, debt, and the challenge of providing for her rebellious daughter, Ellory, after losing her job. When her new boyfriend, architect Hugh Smoll, offers a chance to move into his family’s eerie, centuries-old mansion during renovations, Iris discovers the house hides sinister secrets—and that her arrival was no coincidence.

This book wasn't similar to Lisa Jewell's A Family Upstairs, but it definitely had the creepy family mystery alive throughout the story. I felt that this book was more of a family drama, rather than a mystery/thriller, but it still was an enjoyable time regardless. The pacing of this story is rather slow and I caught myself wanted to skim ahead, so I had to catch myself a few times. That being said, the final twist(S!!) in this story completely through me for a loop, which put a nice little bow on my reading experience with this book. Fans of Georgina Cross and Seraphina Nova Glass will enjoy THE FAMILY INSIDE.

3.5 stars

Wow, this book was a WILD ride! So wild that at times I was lost and confused but it all came together in the end. This book has everything, dysfunctional family, lies, secrets and murders and the plot is TWISTY! Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this advanced readers copy

From the getgo I had a really hard time reading this book. It might have been the writing style or the characters. I am not sure but I had really high hopes and the book fell flat. it was a little boring and I wanted so much more from it.

I will say that if I ever fall in love with a guy who takes me to live with him in his mother's house that he is fixing up and it looks like this house in the book, with the siblings that Hugh has, I would hop back in my car and never go back! But that would not make for a suspenseful, twisty impossible to put down story like this book was. Told from the viewpoints of Iris and Ellory (after she leaves) it unwinds in a very surprising twist that left me gobsmacked but did a great job of answering questions I did not even know I had. And there are a few more twists, extra creepiness, uncertainty in who to trust, and secrets galore! It will leave you gasping and shouting at Iris to run! I am glad that she does have good friends to help her out with the nightmare that Iris and Ellory find themselves in (especially a shout out to Sloane!). And the ending is thoroughly satisfying in tying up all the loose ends from the past and present in bringing guilty or deserving of punishment their just desserts.

A good, thrilling read that goes by quickly as it is really hard to put down! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book!

Huge thank you to HTP Books for the gifted ARC!

This book was BONKERS! If you're a fan of the wildest and craziest thrillers full of insane and shady characters, this one is for you!

After Iris loses her husband and subsequently her home, her and her daughter move into her new boyfriend's family home. The catch? The house is CREEPY. His family is CREEPY. Everything is CREEPY! If you think you've read about a sketchy family, BUCKLE UP! This one may take the cake!

I loved that NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is what it seems in this book! I thought I knew what was happening and got thrown for one of the biggest loops ever! And then the twists just kept coming right up until the very end!

This is one that will definitely stay with me for a while! It was so unique and I read it in a 24 hour period; I just HAD to know what was happening within the walls of this crazy house!

Was it believable? No. Was it a total blast? Yes.

What a wild ride this book was! I couldn't put it down. So many twists and turns. I really liked most of the book. The very final twist didn't work for me. I wish that part had been left out. I think the ending would have been fine without it. That being said, it was definitely and ending I didn't expect. Definitely worth the read.

Looking for your next page turning, can’t put down thriller? Then look no further, The Family Inside is the book for you! I needed a book to get me out of a slight slump and this definitely did the trick!

Read this if:
🔪Like short chapters
🔪Dysfunctional families and lies
🔪Multiple Murders
🔪Twists and Turns

Publication date: 1/28/25